Milk Run
"}} "Milk Run" is the twelfth episode of Miami Vice's first season. It premiered on January 4, 1985, and was rerun on April 12, 1985 and December 20, 1985. Summary try to stop two teenagers set on a one-time drug deal for big money. Plot Acting on a tip that someone is planning to smuggle drugs through Miami International Airport, Crockett and Tubbs stake out the airport trying to spot the would-be mule. They notice a couple of kids from New York, Eddie Rivers and Louis Martinez, who buy a ticket to Bogota with cash, drawing their suspicion. The Vice cops catch up to them in the airport diner and sit down to chat, sharing with them some of typical dangers faced by amateur drug runners attempting to bring drugs back from Colombia, such as death and mutilation -- hoping to scare them out of their foolish plans. However, when the Vice cops ask to see some IDs, Louis tips the table on them and both young men escape. While Crockett enjoys a hot dog outside the Miami courthouse, public defender Andy Sloan stops by for a chat, boasting that he is bound for the private sector, where he will likely earn more in a month than Crockett does in a year. After the arrogant lawyer departs, Crockett reveals his history with Sloan to Tubbs, in particular one case where the accused was found innocent after a dozen defense witnesses miraculously appeared during the trial -- Crockett later learned that the witnesses had been bought with cocaine, and that Sloan had received the biggest "payment" of all. As the two Vice cops walk the streets, Tubbs tells his partner that he ran Eddie and Louis through the computer at ; while he found no criminal record, he did learn that Louis has applied for a Florida license, and the Vice cops figure the two kids plan to retire after making their big deal. Crockett is ready to call it a day, but Tubbs informs him they have been given stakeout duty by Castillo, who has ordered them to watch a suspected cocaine lab in South Miami. They park up down the street in Crockett's Daytona, Crockett passing the time by lamenting the fact that Sloan is living the good life and wondering if they really scared Eddie and Louis out of running drugs; unknown to him, Eddie is boarding a flight for Bogota even as he speaks, hoping to bring back a big enough package that he and Louis can open up a club in Miami with the profits. Meanwhile, Crockett and Tubbs watch a group of men enter the suspects drug factory in the dead of night. Shortly thereafter, the building explodes. Investigating the blast, the Vice squad find evidence of a sophisticated drug operation, as well as statues of the Santería god Changó packed with 90+ pure cocaine, each one worth about $25,000 on the street. The sole survivor of the explosion mentions the name "Moya", but the Vice cops have little else to go on. In Bogota, Eddie visits Louis' contact, Moya's cousin, who shows him how to pack cocaine inside the Changó statues so that it will not be detected by customs; Eddie takes one of the statues and heads back to Miami. Meanwhile, Crockett and Tubbs go to see Angela, a former junkie once busted by Crockett. Despite her appearance, she is a Santería princess, and the Vice cops hope she can shed some light on the case. While Crockett pumps Angela for information, Tubbs keeps her boyfriend Zeke occupied. Angela reveals that "Moya" refers to Diego Moya, who runs a gym in South Beach. Crockett picks up Tubbs before Zeke and his gang can do him bodily harm, and they go to the gym. There, they pose as two boxing managers interested in a fighter and meet Diego's brother, Pepe, who tells them Diego is out. Tubbs hustles Crockett out of the building when he spots Louis sneaking out the back, and sure enough they see him getting into a cab outside. They tail him to the Senator Hotel, and while they inquire about him at the check-in desk, Eddie walks in carrying a package. Crockett and Tubbs arrest him before he can get away. Back at OCB, Crockett informs Castillo that the statue Eddie brought back matches the one in the explosion -- right down to the cocaine packed inside it. However, evidence linking the drugs to Moya is circumstantial at best. Crockett presses Eddie to go through with his planned deal so that the Vice cops can see who shows up, otherwise he's facing a 15 year mandatory sentence for possession with intent. Eddie refuses to cooperate, telling them that his lawyer -- Sloan -- informed him the cops weren't to be trusted. Crockett and Tubbs find Sloan in a restaurant, drag him out, and demand that he tell Eddie they will honor any deals made. He begrudgingly does so, and Crockett promises Eddie a free walk if he cooperates. Finally seeing sense, Eddie leads the Vice squad to Louis, who is offered the same deal. With both young men on board, the Vice squad and their backup lie in wait. Later that night, Diego Moya arrives to buy the drugs, but when he tries to kill the boys rather than pay them, he is shot dead by a Metro-Dade sniper. Crockett promises a shocked Eddie and Louis that they held up their end of the bargain and will be heading back to New York that night. As Diego's body is loaded into an ambulance outside, a distraught Pepe watches from a nearby car. With Diego dead, Castillo is concerned that his brother will seek bloody revenge. He has take Eddie and Louis to a safehouse, while Crockett and Tubbs go to find out from Angela where Pepe is. They are interrupted by an angry Zeke, but when the Vice cops subdue and threaten him he reveals that he has been supplying Moya with ether for his drug operation. While he does not know where Pepe is, he does reveal the location of Moya's main lab. Crockett and Tubbs want in on the raid, but Castillo orders them to take Louis and Eddie to the airport, giving them the "milk run" because they did a good job with the case. At the airport, Crockett, Tubbs, Eddie and Louis stop by the gift shop before the boys' flight home, when suddenly Pepe shows up and opens fire with a shotgun, killing Eddie. Tubbs chases Moya down and shoots him dead, returning to find a devastated Crockett sitting on the floor of the gift shop as Eddie's body is taken away. Crockett scolds Louis for getting into this business before telling him to go home. As he is led away, Tubbs suggests to his partner that they get out of there; Crockett agrees, but doesn't move, leading Tubbs to take a seat on the floor beside him. Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese (credit only) *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *John Diehl as Metro-Dade Detective Larry Zito *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin (credit only) *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Evan Handler as Louis Martinez *Al Shannon as Eddie Rivers *Rainbow Harvest as Angela *Eric Bogosian as Zeke *Shawn Elliott as Moya's Cousin *John Kapelos as Andy Sloan Co-Starring *Alexis Arguello as Pepe Moya *Jesus Bolano as Diego Moya Uncredited *Julio Oscar Mechoso as Metro-Dade Policeman Lester Kosko *Denise White as Denise Notes * Saundra Santiago (Gina) and Olivia Brown (Trudy) do not appear at all in this episode. * This is the first episode where Crockett and Tubbs do a coin toss to decide who goes where. Crockett usually won. * The Santería religion would be revisited as a plot point in the season 2 episode "Whatever Works". * By definition, a milk run is "a routine trip involving stops at many places". * In the scene where Eddie is killed, the picture flickers quite noticeably, probably because the scene was not originally intended to be shown in slow motion and so was not shot using a high-speed camera; as a result, when the footage was slowed down, some of the breaks in the film can be seen as black 'flashes'. * After Eddie is shot and crashes through the glass display case, you can see several Atari 2600 cartridges on the floor, including the games Super Breakout and Yars Revenge. * The Senator Hotel where Louis and Eddie arrange their drug deal was demolished in October 1988 to make room for a parking building.http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamidigital/chronology.php?IDcategory=5 * Another hotel Crockett and Tubbs pass by, the Revere Hotel, was demolished in 1993 by fashion designer Giovanni Versace to build the pool for his home, Casa Casuarina, the site of his murder in 1997. * Crockett doesn't actually eat his hot dog, but drops it behind the seat of Sloan's Corvette. * The instrumental track playing on the street where Crockett and Tubbs talk with Angela and Zeke is not an outside piece of popular music, but rather a Jan Hammer composition (in fact it is a short section of the "Miami Vice Theme" looped). This kind of "fake" song would become more prevalent in season 5, when the show's new composer Tim Truman would compose several such pieces for use in various episodes. * The video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which was heavily inspired by Miami Vice and can be seen as an homage to the show, features small green "tiki statues" packed with cocaine hidden around the map for the player to collect, referencing this episode. * This is one of several episodes that does not end on a freeze frame. Goofs *When Crockett is chasing Louis and Eddie past the security scanners in the airport, he overtakes a female security guard who is also in pursuit. In the next camera shots, he overtakes her again. *In the scene where Crockett and Tubbs are walking down the crowded street after meeting Sloan at the start of the episode, the movement of their lips does not match what they are saying. *When Eddie falls through the display case in the airport gift shop after being shot, the stuntman's safety glasses can briefly be seen. Production Notes *Filmed: November 19, 1984 - November 30, 1984 *Production Number: 59512 *Production Order: 13 Filming Locations *Miami Free Zone NW 24th/107th in Doral (Airport Scenes) *Senator Hotel, 12th/Collins Ave, Miami Beach (Hotel where drug deal made, demolished in 1988) Music *"Legs" by ZZ Top (opening sequence with Crockett looking at blonde) *"Feliz Cumbe" by Fernandito Villalona y Su Orquesta (Crockett and Tubbs on the street) *"Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar (at the Moya gym) Jan Hammer Music *"Miami Vice Theme" (on children's boombox on the street) *"Crockett's Theme" (Crockett makes a deal with Eddie, Crockett mourns Eddie's death) *"Rain" (drug deal scenes at Senator) Quotes *"This lab was state of the art- microwave ovens to dry the product, and in the back, a computer to do the accounting." Crockett to Lt. Castillo at the destroyed coke lab. *"We're the guys who are gonna bust y'all if Eddie comes back from Colombia with anything in that bag besides his dirty laundry" -- Crockett to Eddie and Louis in airport lounge *"I don't see how you make it through the night with tubes of mystery meat in your stomach!". -- Tubbs about Crockett's hot dog eating *"It's called culture, Switek, stick around, some of it may rub off on you!" -- Tubbs after explaining the statues *"You committed a felony! Now play ball, or do the time!" -- Crockett to Eddie *"Listen, you maggot! If you want to settle our score, I'm available... any time, but not at the expense of that kid (Eddie)!" -- Crockett to Sloan *''"Yo, handle this pal. " -- ''Crocketts reply to Tubbs regarding being able to handle a trip to New york References Category:Season 1 episodes Category:Episodes with absent cast members